After less than three years on the job, Rich Ross is out as chairman of Walt Disney Studios.

Ross' departure, which was largely expected throughout Hollywood, follows a period of management upheaval at the Burbank-based studio and a pair of two high-profile box office flops: last year's "Mars Needs Moms" and the Martian adventure film "John Carter," for which Disney acknowledged it expected to take a $200-million loss -- one of the largest in movie history.

Ross, who had built the Disney Channel into a global powerhouse, was promoted in October 2009 as successor to studio veteran Dick Cook. Despite achieving success with Disney Channel shows such as "High School Musical," Ross lacked experience in the movie business.

Many inside and outside Disney were skeptical at the time that a TV executive with limited film experience could transition successfully to running a large movie studio.

In an effort to improve the studio's performance, Ross restructured operations and ousted several experienced division heads and hired a movie outsider, MT Carney, as head of marketing. Carney was pushed out in January after less than two years on the job.

Ross sent an email to his colleagues Friday morning, saying, "I no longer believe the Chairman role is the right professional fit for me. For that reason, I have made the very difficult decision to step down as Chairman of The Walt Disney Studios, effective today."

In a statement, Disney Chairman Bob Iger touted Ross' contributions to the company. "His vision and leadership opened doors for Disney around the world, making our brand part of daily life for millions of people."

After less than three years on the job, Rich Ross is out as chairman of Walt Disney Studios.

Ross' departure, which was largely expected throughout Hollywood, follows a period of management upheaval at the Burbank-based studio and a pair of two high-profile box office flops: last year's "Mars Needs Moms" and the Martian adventure film "John Carter," for which Disney acknowledged it expected to take a $200-million loss -- one of the largest in movie history.

Ross, who had built the Disney Channel into a global powerhouse, was promoted in October 2009 as successor to studio veteran Dick Cook. Despite achieving success with Disney Channel shows such as "High School Musical," Ross lacked experience in the movie business.

Many inside and outside Disney were skeptical at the time that a TV executive with limited film experience could transition successfully to running a large movie studio.

In an effort to improve the studio's performance, Ross restructured operations and ousted several experienced division heads and hired a movie outsider, MT Carney, as head of marketing. Carney was pushed out in January after less than two years on the job.

Ross sent an email to his colleagues Friday morning, saying, "I no longer believe the Chairman role is the right professional fit for me. For that reason, I have made the very difficult decision to step down as Chairman of The Walt Disney Studios, effective today."

In a statement, Disney Chairman Bob Iger touted Ross' contributions to the company. "His vision and leadership opened doors for Disney around the world, making our brand part of daily life for millions of people."

Walt Disney Studios: Help wanted to manage films and egosFew in Hollywood seem interested in heading Disney Studios, a tough job requiring working with outside partners and guiding the company into the digital age.By Ben Fritz, Los Angeles Times

Once considered one of the most powerful and sought-after positions in Hollywood, running Walt Disney Studios — the 89-year-old Burbank institution behind "Snow White," "Mary Poppins" and "Pirates of the Caribbean" — now seems about as desirable as playing Goofy on a hot day at Disneyland.

But since Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Bob Iger fired his studio head Rich Ross last week, the buzz in Hollywood has been less about who's angling for the studio chairman job and more about who would want it.

The reason: Iger's strategy of turning Disney into a collection of brands means that most of the films it releases are not overseen or greenlighted by the movie studio chief, as they are at rival companies. Next year, for example, Disney will release five movies, including two 3-D re-releases, from its Pixar and Disney animation units, both headed by John Lasseter and Ed Catmull; two superhero films from Marvel, a subsidiary run by Chief Executive Ike Perlmutter and President Kevin Feige; and at least one from DreamWorks, the independent studio run by Steven Spielberg and Stacey Snider that has a distribution deal with Disney.

Ross' successor must be someone all of those partners trust and with whom they are willing to work. And a big part of the job will be managing their egos.

Only two films on Disney's 2013 slate were approved and overseen by Ross: "Oz: The Great and Powerful," based on the classic book series and movie, and a new version of "The Lone Ranger" starring Johnny Depp. And both have powerful producers who are themselves forces to be reckoned with: Jerry Bruckheimer on "The Lone Ranger" and former Disney studio Chairman Joe Roth on "Oz."

The studio is responsible, however, for advertising and releasing the movies from all of its brands and partners, meaning Ross' successor would be an easy target for blame if those pictures didn't work. People close to Disney but not authorized to speak publicly say Lasseter, Feige and Snider are all intimately involved in marketing plans and were bitter about having their films promoted by inexperienced outsider M.T. Carney, whom Ross hired in 2010 and dismissed early this year.

Though Ross' departure came soon after the failure of "John Carter," for which Disney is taking a $200-million write-down, people close to the studio said it had more to do with his inability to win the support of allies inside and outside Disney. Lasseter, Perlmutter, Snider and Spielberg were said to have been unhappy with his leadership, and numerous lower-level employees at the studio, plus agents and producers around Hollywood, complained that Ross did not clearly articulate the types of projects he wanted or his vision to transform the studio.

In addition, Ross replaced nearly all of the seasoned movie executives at Disney with less experienced hands. Some newcomers, such as production president Sean Bailey, are well liked, but others, such as Carney, were spectacular failures. (So far, Carney's successor, Ricky Strauss, is winning higher marks.)

Thus, less than three years after Iger stunned Hollywood by replacing veteran Dick Cook with Ross, who had a successful tenure running Disney Channels Worldwide but had never worked in the movie business, the Disney CEO must go back to the drawing board — again.

He is faced with the humbling task of finding a chairman capable of endearing himself or herself to colleagues and Hollywood's creative community and who also possesses the skills to update the studio for the digital age — one of the ostensible reasons Cook was fired.

"All of this drama shows the changes at the studio are very much a work in progress," said Tony Wible, a media analyst at Janney Montgomery Scott. "But it's important they figure it out because the studio is a launching pad for the brands that make money in theme parks, in consumer products and on television."

Walt Disney Studios is now being run by several executives previously under Ross who now report directly to Iger, including Bailey and President Alan Bergman, who oversees distribution and business operations. It's an unusual situation in Hollywood, where top executives usually aren't fired without a replacement lined up to prevent the kind of instability and uncertainty now present on the Disney lot.

Already, many of the names that first popped up as potential successors for Ross have quietly made clear that they're not interested or are unavailable.

Feige, who has produced Marvel's string of hits including two "Iron Man" films, "Thor" and "Captain America: The First Avenger," along with next week's hugely anticipated "The Avengers," is telling associates that he'd prefer to stay in his current job, according to two people familiar with the executive's thinking.

Lasseter, who lives near the headquarters of Pixar Animation Studios in Northern California's Emeryville, is said to be happy staying in charge of Disney's fabled animation operation. Snider, who ran Universal Pictures before moving to DreamWorks, is obliged to sign a multi-year contract extension as part of a $200-million refinancing with backer Reliance Entertainment, making her unavailable even if she wanted the job.

Roth, who ran Disney Studios from 1994 to 2000 and has headed 20th Century Fox and Revolution Studios, is not interested in the position as he is busy producing three coming movies for Disney: "Oz," a sequel to the 2010 blockbuster "Alice in Wonderland" and the "Sleeping Beauty" spinoff "Maleficent," as well as the FX/Lionsgate television show "Anger Management" starring Charlie Sheen. He also owns Major League Soccer's Seattle Sounders.

At a presentation of Disney's coming movies at the CinemaCon gathering of theater owners in Las Vegas this week, things appeared to go smoothly despite the instability in Burbank. The studio brought out stars including Depp, James Franco and Mila Kunis and had executives including Bailey, Feige and Lasseter discuss the slate, along with Bruckheimer and Roth.

"We feel like we're in good hands and here to talk about 'Brave.' I think we're doing all right," she said.

Almost immediately after Sarafian had uttered the words, a Disney publicist rushed over and implored a reporter to stop asking filmmakers questions about Ross because it was making them "uncomfortable."

i'm just about to turn 26 and graduate with a computer science degree. i've previously graduated with an english degree to avoid dropping out of school (i had no motivation for college the first time around, and just wanted to get it done with). sadly, as i near graduation once more (just one quarter left), the old malaise is getting back to me. can i really stomach an engineering career? can i make it in a highly competitive field when i have little to no interest in the industry?

i mean, sure i like writing code more than most other things i learned in school... but if i won the lottery today, i wouldn't write another line in my whole life! i'm graduating "at the top of my class" from a decent school, but i feel like i have nothing in common with my department peers, and even less with the few industry professionals i know of.

what's the alternative though? i know what it's like having no marketable skills -- that dreadful situation is what sent me back to school in the first place. i feel like i'm damned if i do, damned if i don't. all the talk of teaching in this thread has actually got me somewhat interested. as far as i know, though, computer programming isn't really taught below the university level.

i could try for a phd, but no one gets a phd just to teach, and you need even more passion for computation and math to pursue an academic career than to pursue an industry career...

i really don't know what i'm going to do. my job search is floundering. people can sense i have no enthusiasm during my phone interviews.

i'm just about to turn 26 and graduate with a computer science degree. i've previously graduated with an english degree to avoid dropping out of school (i had no motivation for college the first time around, and just wanted to get it done with). sadly, as i near graduation once more (just one quarter left), the old malaise is getting back to me. can i really stomach an engineering career? can i make it in a highly competitive field when i have little to no interest in the industry?

i mean, sure i like writing code more than most other things i learned in school... but if i won the lottery today, i wouldn't write another line in my whole life! i'm graduating "at the top of my class" from a decent school, but i feel like i have nothing in common with my department peers, and even less with the few industry professionals i know of.

what's the alternative though? i know what it's like having no marketable skills -- that dreadful situation is what sent me back to school in the first place. i feel like i'm damned if i do, damned if i don't. all the talk of teaching in this thread has actually got me somewhat interested. as far as i know, though, computer programming isn't really taught below the university level.

i could try for a phd, but no one gets a phd just to teach, and you need even more passion for computation and math to pursue an academic career than to pursue an industry career...

i really don't know what i'm going to do. my job search is floundering. people can sense i have no enthusiasm during my phone interviews.

I could write a novel here, if I wasn't so dog-tired from writing code

i'm just about to turn 26 and graduate with a computer science degree. i've previously graduated with an english degree to avoid dropping out of school (i had no motivation for college the first time around, and just wanted to get it done with). sadly, as i near graduation once more (just one quarter left), the old malaise is getting back to me. can i really stomach an engineering career? can i make it in a highly competitive field when i have little to no interest in the industry?

i mean, sure i like writing code more than most other things i learned in school... but if i won the lottery today, i wouldn't write another line in my whole life! i'm graduating "at the top of my class" from a decent school, but i feel like i have nothing in common with my department peers, and even less with the few industry professionals i know of.

what's the alternative though? i know what it's like having no marketable skills -- that dreadful situation is what sent me back to school in the first place. i feel like i'm damned if i do, damned if i don't. all the talk of teaching in this thread has actually got me somewhat interested. as far as i know, though, computer programming isn't really taught below the university level.

i could try for a phd, but no one gets a phd just to teach, and you need even more passion for computation and math to pursue an academic career than to pursue an industry career...

i really don't know what i'm going to do. my job search is floundering. people can sense i have no enthusiasm during my phone interviews.

Some brief points:

- Were you comparing yourself to Tom? There are twenty years between you. The guy has admitted he was fucking around for more than a decade, whereas you have two degrees.

- You have a top ten marketable skill. You don't have to "make it" if you don't want to. But you will live comfortably in harrowing times. You know as well as I do that not everyone can code. And you have an degree in english on top of that? Intellectually, you are head and shoulders above most people mate. This alone should be a source of immense pride to you.

- You may want to consider working for a small company... with only a couple other developers. You will grow very fast. In any case don't dismiss professional coding until you do it, you may get yourself into a self-fulfilling prophecy.

- Looking for job straight out of uni is always hard. It took me twelve interviews in six months to finally land my first job (I was saying all the wrong things anyway- trying to come across as too smart- people are looking for a team player in graduates. Make sure to emphasize this.) Do you know how long it took me to find my second job? Two weeks. I had three interviews straight away, two of which made an offer the next day.

thanks ray! i'm definitely going to suck it up at least until i can land something and pay off the debt i've accumulated from school loans, so i'm sure i'll get some professional experience soon. i just can't shake the feeling i'm not cut out for it, that something's wrong, that i should be doing something else...

thanks for your advice, again. i'm sure i'll have more questions for you in the coming months!